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Etrade Financial would have been hard-pressed to find anybody besides Jim Cramer to pack a ballroom at the Times Square Marriott Marquis for its “Trader Forum” trading seminar on Thursday.

Within a minute of coming to the podium, the peripatetic, fast-talking host of Mad Money on CNBC rolled up his shirtsleeves and gave the roomful of mostly retail investors what they came to see: lots of stock picks, and in this case several accompanying options plays. There was also a "lightning round," stunning simply for Cramer's unaided recall of more stock information that you could probably stick on a several old-school 5.25-inch floppy disks.

Cramer’s view of market direction through yearend is dictated by politics and the outcome of the November midterm elections in which he says Republicans need to regain control of Congress and create the divided-government scenario that proved so salubrious to the market following the 1994 elections.

“If Republicans prevail, we could see a 30% gain in the stock market, like the 37% move when it happened to Clinton,” says Cramer. “If the Democrats keep both houses you can’t buy enough SPX 1100 puts,” he adds, noting that a test of 9300 on the Dow would likely follow a successful defense of legislative hegemony by the Democrats.

Cramer has a soft spot for hard assets in his portfolio.

“I am an unabashed believer in gold,” he says. “Gold can go to $2,000 in the next few years, and I’m not talking about 2020.” The “most bullish factor” for gold is that “we’re running out,” says Cramer. “There are no more big discoveries in the world,” says Cramer, adding that the next two months are traditionally bullish for gold because of jewelry demand in India and China.